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In an unprecedented development, the Indian Football Association has prima facie identified 15 players of three fancied Kolkata outfits for their involvement in on-field violence and assault on a referee during two Super Division league matches and summoned them to appear before the league sub-committee on Sunday.
Seven Mohun Bagan and three East Bengal players have been directed to personally explain their conduct during the
derby clash between the two teams on September 4.Five Mohammedan Sporting players -- captain Dipendu Biswas, S K Sanjib, Hussain Mustafi, Zaheer Abbas and Amjad Ali Khan -- have been asked to appear in person before the sub-committee for allegedly charging at referee Udayan Haldar after the league match against East Bengal on August 19.
The five had earlier been asked to appear on Friday, but Sporting general secretary Sultan Ahmed pleaded that it would inconvenience the footballers a day before the club's crucial engagement against Mohun Bagan.
Thursday's Super Six tie, marred by frequent bouts of frayed tempers by the players, saw two key East Bengal footballers -- Deepak Mondal and Debjit Ghosh -- and Bagan's Lolendra Singh being given marching orders by referee Subrata Sarkar.
Other than the above three, East Bengal's Mahesh Gowli and Bagan's Marcos Pereira, Abhay Kumar, Sanjib Maria, Basudeb Mondal, Mehtab Hossain and Rishi Kapoor were identified by the IFA officials after watching the video footage of the Super Six match which finished goalless.
The IFA has also decided to summon the managers of the two sides -- East Bengal's Swapan Bal and Om Jhunjhunwala of Mohun Bagan -- after they were indicted in match commissioner Pradip Nag's report for repeatedly entering the playing arena and charging at the fourth referee.